Recutting of cylindrical tubes into a plurality of tubes



J. W. LUCE, 5R

Dec. 2, 1969 RECUTTING OF CYLINDRICAL TUBES INTO A PLURALITY OF TUBES Filed July 31, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 2, 1969 J. w. LUCE, SR 3,481,234

RECUTTING OF CYLINDRICAL TUBES INTO A PLURALITY OF TUBES Filed July 31, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ELE QTEO- E HYSRAUU Q M0123 ELECl RICAL SUP 0 W E E um \T L 28 F SERVO m /A ANPLlFlER LOCKOUT? WW5 yapvrz INVENTOR.

JOHN W. LucE, sR.

Amrcwevs 3,481,234 RECUTTING OF CYLINDRICAL TUBES INTO A PLURALITY OF TUBES John Whitney Luce, Sr., Maumee, Ohio, assignor to Owens-Illinois, Inc., a corporation of Ohio Filed July 31, 1967, Ser. No. 657,328 Int. Cl. B23b 3/04, 9/00, 5/14 U.S. CI. 8285 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As is well known in the prior art, many categories of cylindrical container bodies, for example, container bodies for frozen citrus concentrate and container bodies for motor oil, may be manufactured expeditiously by continuously winding a multiplicity of layers of various materials, usually including one or more interiorly oriented layers of a sturdy grade of fibreboard, by cutting the wound tube into relatively long length as a part of the spiral or other winding operation, and by recutting such tubes into individual lengths in a subsequent recutting operation. In this operation, the outermost layer of the wound tube is normally a label and, for reasons of attractiveness of appearance, it is important to accurately position or register each label relative to the ends of the ultimate container body with a minimum of wasted material or scrap in the overall operation.

The prior art has tried to obtain the desired accuracy of label registration by providing means to accurately control the position of the main cuts of the continuously wound tube during the winding operation with no regard for continuous control or monitoring over the location of the lines of recutting. This prior art approach to the problem of label registration can be deficient due to the great difiiculty involved in accurately controlling the placement of the main cut during the winding operation, because of the rapid longitudinal movement of the tube, and when, due to difliculties in the recutting operation, the tube being recut is not properly positioned relative to a fixed stop before the recutting operation begins. In the present invention, however, these and other problems associated with controlling label registration in the manufacture of cylindrical container body lengths are overcome :by providing a recutter in which the recutter knives may be longitudinally repositioned before the start of the recutting operation by automatic means which are responsive to the position of a detectable mark on the outside of the tube.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel and useful recutting apparatus and method.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide recutting apparatus and method which will accurately perform the recutting operation notwithstanding inaccuracies in the original cutting of the tube being recut.

For a further understanding of the present invention, attention is directed to the following portion of the specification, the drawing and the appended claims.

United States Patent 0:

3,481,234 Patented Dec. 2, 1969 IN THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a recutting machine embodying the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a control system associated with the machine of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In FIG. 1 there is shown a recutting machine having a plurality (shown as 3) of cylindrical mandrels 11 extending horizontally and parallel to one another in cantilever fashion from a common structure 12 and evenly circumferentially spaced from one another. Structure 12 is pivoted for rotation, in intermittent steps, about a central axis equidistant from the longitudinal axes of the mandrels. In operation, a tube T from a spiral winding machine (not shown) is positioned over the mandrel in the uppermost position and against a fixed stop 13 and is recut into a multiplicity of individual lengths (shown as 8) by a longitudinal series of spaced recutter knife assemblies 14. Each recutter knife assembly has a freely rotatable cutting wheel 15 held in a housing 16 and the cutting wheels are urged into and out of cutting contact with tube T by the action of pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders 17. Rotational cutting contact between tube T and the cutting wheels 15 of the cutters is eflt'ected by providing motive means 18 to frictionally rotatingly drive the mandrel 11 which happens to be in the uppermost cutting position. While tube T is being cut, another tube (not shown) may be inserted on the mandrel which will be advanced next to the cutting station and the previously cut tube bodies are stripped from the mandrel which has just passed from the cutting station.

Recutter knife assemblies 14, only 2 of which are shown for the sake of clarity, the rest being indicated by discontinuous circular lines showing the location of the cutting wheels, are slidably attached to a longitudinally extending slide bar 19 by a sliding dovetail type of connection, and, after their positions have been carefully selected prior to start-up of the recutter, they are locked in such positions by conventional fastening devices (not shown). Since recutting machines are normallyemployed to cut container bodies of equal length, the cutter assemblies 14 are spaced evenly along slide bar 19. In this context,.the term spaced evenly is also intended to cover the arrangement where a thin ring of excess trim or scrap material intermediate the ends of the tube is removed :by a pair of cutter wheels spaced very closely together, as at location R of tube T.

Slide bar 19', in turn, is securely attached to a 1ongitudinally extending bar 21 which is slidable longitudinally of its central axis in its upright end supports 22 and 23 under the action of the piston and piston rod of a hydraulic cylinder 24, which is also supported by member 23. The movement of the piston of cylinder 24 back and forth in the cylinder is precisely controlled by a proportional photoelectric hydraulic control system actuated by a detecting device, preferably a photocell 25, which detects the position of a detectable mark M on the tube which bears a known positional relationship to the preferred cutting lines of the tube being recut, for example, the location of a scrap ring or a ring of excess trim material as is explained in US. Patent 3,264,956 to F. G. Glasby et al. If the photocell and the detectable mark are not in radially aligned relationship to one another the photocell will emit a low voltage electrical signal which, as is shown in FIG. 2, is amplified by an amplifier 26 and, as amplified, is impressed upon a servo valve 27 to control the flow of hydraulic fluid between a power unit 28 and cylinder 24. A manual automatic lockout valve 29 may also be provided to disconnect cylinder 24 from 3 automatic operation of the control circuit using photocell 25.

It is believed that the best mode known to me to carry out this invention has been described above in terms sufficiently full, clear, concise and exact as to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the same. It is to be understood, however, that it is within my contemplation that certain modifications of the above-described mode of practicing the invention can be made by a skilled artisan without departing from the scope of the invention and it is, therefore, desired to limit the invention only in accordance with the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for cutting an open-end cylindrical tube into a multiplicity of shorter open-end cylindrical bodies, said tube having a detectable mark indicating a location of the tube relative to a preferred cutting location, said apparatus comprising, in combination: positioning means for positioning a tube at a predetermined location; cutting means mounted adjacent said predetermined location in normally non-contacting relationship with said tube, said cutting means being mounted for adjustment of its position relative to the longitudinal axis of said tube when said cutting means is in non-contacting relationship with said tube; sensing means adjacent said predetermined location for detecting the location of said detectable mark; adjusting means responsive to a signal from the sensing means to adjust the position of the cutting means relative to the longitudinal axis of the tube to maintain a predeter-mined relationship between the position of the cu.- ting means and the position of the detectable mark; and means to bring the cutting means into cutting relationship with the tube after the position of the cutting means relative to the tube has been effected.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said positioning means comprises a longitudinally extending mandrel, wherein said cutting means comprises at least one cutter assembly comprising a circular cutting wheel and a cutting wheel mounting device lockingly attached to a longitudinally extending slide bar, wherein said longitudinally extending slide bar is, in turn, attached to a second longitudinally extending bar whose longitudinal position is adjustable, and wherein said adjusting means is effec tive to adjust the longitudinal position of the second bar in response to said signal.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein said cutting means comprises a plurality of longitudinally evenly spaced cutter assemblies, and wherein the cutting wheel mounting device of each cutter assembly is attached to a common slide bar.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 and further comprising a multiplicity of such mandrels disposed parallel to one another, evenly radially spaced from a common central axis, and evenly circumferentially spaced from one another, and means for rotating all of said mandrels in unison about said common central axis between successive cutting cycles for an arc equal to the spacing between circumferentially successive mandrels in the multiplicity.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4 wherein means are provided to selectively rotate only the mandrel at the preferred cutting location about its own longitudinal central axis during the cutting operation.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein each cutter is freely rotatable about its own longitudinal central axis, and wherein each cutter is caused to rotate about such axis when the cutter is in contact with a tube on the mandrel at the preferred cutting location by rotation of said mandrel.

7. Recutter apparatus for recutting fibre-bodied cylindrical tubes from a continuous tube winding machine into a plurality of individual cylindrical bodies, each of said tubes having at least one detectable mark thereon indicating the location of the tube relative to preferred locations of a plurality of cutting lines, said recutter apparatus comprising, in combination: a plurality of cylindrical mandrels mounted in cantilever fashion from a common structure, said mandrels being parallel to one another, circumferentially evenly spaced, and radially evenly spaced from a central axis of said common structure which is parallel to the said mandrels, said common structure being rotatable about said central axis in circumferential increments equal to the circumferential spacing between successive mandrels to position said mandrels in succession at a predetermined location; a fixed stop associated with the mandrel in the predetermined location for accurately longitudinally positioning said mandrel relative to a tube inserted over the free end of the mandrel; a bar extending parallel to the mandrel at the predetermined location and adjacent thereto; a plurality of longitudinally spaced-apart cutting devices operatively associated with said bar and in normally non-contacting relationship with a tube inserted over the mandrel at the predetermined location against the fixed stop; sensing means adjacent to the detectable mark of a tube when the tube is inserted over the mandrel at the predetermined location against the fixed stop for detecting the location of the detectable mark relative to the fixed stop; repositioning means responsive to a signal from the detecting means for moving the cutting devices, in unison, in a direction parallel to the axis of the mandrel to reposition the cutting devices to positions radially aligned with the locations of the preferred cutting lines; and means to bring said cutting devices into cutting relationship with said tube after the cutting devices have been repositioned.

8. Recutter apparatus according to claim 7 wherein each of said cutting devices is fixedly attached to said bar and wherein said repositioning means is effective to axially reposition said bar and the cutting devices therewith.

9. Recutter apparatus according to claim 7 wherein said detectable mark is optically detectable and wherein said sensing means comprises a photocell.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,114,272 4/1938 Temple 8285 2,298,366 10/1942 Gladfelter et al. 82-97 3,302,500 2/ 1967 Hackenberger et al 82-97 3,420,127 1/ 1969 Kiss et al. 82-83 HARRISON L. HINSON, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 82-47, 48 

